AMERICAN PUBLIC UNIVERSITY

The Evolution of Natural Rights:

From the Minds of Men
To the Foundational Documents of Freedom

November 30, 2010

WILLIAM R COX
4075725
History of the Enlightenment
Dr. Stanley Carpenter
HIST 536, C001, Summer 2010
 Throughout history man has struggled to develop the most efficient organization

for himself and his society. From the polis of the Greek city-states, to the Roman

Republic and Empire, and to the American and French revolutions, man has craved the

perfect form of societal organization, yet the perfection he has sought has more often than

not been thwarted by the nature of man himself. Plato argued that “the States are as the

men are; they grow out of human characters,” the government can only exhibit the

characteristics of the men that make up the government.1 The questions that have

plagued man for centuries are how can man best live in peace side-by-side with his

neighbor? How can they set about agreed upon rules that govern their interactions? How

can each guarantee the others peace and freedom to enjoy life?

To answer any of these questions we must first consider the natural state of man

before discussing and determining the best form of societal organization, social contract,

or government. The idea of natural rights and a social contract to protect them evolved

over the centuries and reached something of a philosophical apogee during the eighteenth

century. In short natural rights, those rights with which man is born, and how best to

protect them, became the center of political debate during the Age of Enlightenment.

The Enlightenment philosophers that practiced their trade during the decades of

the American and French revolutions spent many years debating and discussing man’s

natural state and his natural rights. Correspondingly, most of their theories were

predicated upon the previous philosophical work from men such as Plato, Hobbes, and

Locke, to only name a few. The theories of natural rights in many ways are derived from

the idea that justice is inherently recognized by man, “the natural law rests firmly on his
1
Plato, Republic, ed. Elizabeth Scharffenberger, trans. Benjamin Jowett (New York:
Barnes and Noble Classics), 259.

2
noblest endowment.”2 Christianity over time added its own theory of natural rights.

Christians specifically argued that any inherited rights are actually endowed by God.

Most philosophers of the Enlightenment dismissed the idea of God and maintained that

man’s reason imbued him with natural rights, that “there are laws independent of, and

superior to, human enactments; they are engraved in men’s hearts, eternal, immutable,

universal and the impose moral obligations on the ruler and give moral rights to the

ruled.”3 The political and philosophical discourse during the Enlightenment continued

the age-old debate of man’s rights and the protection of those rights.

In addition to the Enlightenment philosophers adapting the natural rights

arguments and philosophy of Locke, Hobbes, et al. to their contemporary political

climate, the application of all philosophy became significantly more practical during the

eighteenth century. As more of society became literate, reading rooms began to flourish,

and publications turned from the traditional Latin to the more accessible vernacular. The

political philosophy, thoughts, and ideologies concerning natural rights, and their

protection, began to be discussed in the plain view of the public, the church and the

government. Many of the existing antiquated social organizations, became subject to the

rational criticism of the age. These factors would combine by the end of the century to

radically impact the future of the world and the liberty of millions.4

The philosophy and debate surrounding natural rights and social contracts reached

an apex in the mid eighteenth century and by the end of the century it resulted in two

monumental documents that would become the accepted base line of man’s individual

2
Peter Gay, The Enlightenment: The Science of Freedom (New York: W. W. Norton &
Company, 1969) 456.
3
Ibid., 456-457.
4
Ibid., 58-64.

3
freedom and liberty throughout the western world. This debate was the ignition source

for the revolutions of America and France, and much of the Enlightenment philosophy

became codified in the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights, with the noted

contradiction of slavery, which would finally be extirpated during the 1860s. The

evolution of the philosophy of natural rights and its dramatic impact on the world is best

viewed by identifying John Locke’s philosophy of natural rights and social contract as

the starting point, then examining a sampling of the changes that occurred through the

hands of Voltaire, Rousseau, and Montesquieu and finally examining the end result,

albeit imperfect, the social contract established by the Declaration of Independence, the

French Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen, and the U.S. Constitution and

Bill of Rights.

The philosophy of John Locke in many ways directed the political future of

Britain, Europe and America. Locke, born in Britain in 1632, was an Oxford philosopher

that lived during one of the most influential eras in the long history of the British Empire.

Locke experienced incredible civil strife within England during his lifetime from the

religious conflicts that resulted in the civil war of the 1640s, the Cromwell Protectorate,

the restoration of the Monarchy with Charles II, and finally the Glorious Revolution of

1688. Locke witnessed the chaos that results when different sections of society battle

each other for supremacy, be they hereditary nobles, religious zealots, or elected

Parliamentarians. This is the context from which emerges Locke’s work.5

The primary work that illuminates natural rights and the idea of a social contract

is Locke’s work, The Second Treaties of Government. Because of its influence in Europe

5
William Uzgalis, John Locke, Metaphysics Research Laby, CSLI, Stanford University,
May 5, 2007, http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/locke/ (accessed January 21, 2010).

4
and America this work offers a starting point to identify the early Age of Enlightenment

idea of natural rights and social contract. Many writers and philosophers, especially

those promoting independence in America, often “invoked Locke’s trinity of life, liberty

and property as the precious and inherited natural rights of all free men.”6 What exactly

is Locke’s “trinity” and how does it relate to natural rights or a social contract?

Locke’s argument seeks to provide a basis that defines mans rights and limits or

restricts the political power of the state to impede or intrude upon those rights. Locke

defined man’s rights by considering the natural state of man, that is, without government

or some other social contract that would alter his state in nature. He defines the natural

state of all men as a “state of perfect freedom to order their actions and dispose of their

possessions and persons as they think fit, within the bounds of the law of nature, with out

asking leave, or depending upon the will of any other man.”7 In short, each man is able

to order his own affairs, manage his life and his property in perfect freedom therefore

each man is also equally free. This utopian view of life is disrupted by the infringement

of other men.

Locke admits that, although man is born naturally free and equal in the state of

nature, the “enjoyment of it is very uncertain, and constantly exposed to the invasions of

others;” therefore, men enter into a community as a means of protecting each other’s

natural rights.8 Affording each other the protection of natural rights requires each person

in turn to give up some of those rights to the community, “and thus the community

becomes the umpire . . . those who are united into one body, and have a common
6
Benson Bobrick, Angel in the Whirlwind: The Triumph of the American Revolution
(New York: Penguin Group, 1997), 63.
7
John Locke, "The Second Treatise of Civil Government," in The Portable
Enlightenment Reader, ed. Isaac Kramnick (New York: Penguin, 1995), 395.
8
Ibid., 402.

5
established law and judicature to appeal to, with authority to decide controversies

between them and punish offenders, are in civil society one with another.”9 The social

contract is born, and according to Locke it results from mans desire to protect his natural

rights and his willingness to voluntarily give up some of those rights in order to preserve

the majority of those rights. Individuals may rationally choose to limit their own liberty

and freedom by obeying a duly instituted civil authority in order to protect those natural

rights that remain.10 The purpose of the civil authority, or social contract, was to protect

the natural rights of the citizens and the power of the civil authority was only derived

from the consent of the governed. Likewise, according to Locke the method with which

a government treats the natural rights of its citizens can determine the legitimacy of that

government. Despotism will eventually claim the right to violate the natural rights of

man; therefore, when mans rights are violated by his government, when the social

contract is not observed by the community he has a legitimate right to rebel.11 For Locke

“freedom of men under government is to have a standing rule to live by, common to

every one of that society, and made by the legislative power erected in it; a liberty to

follow my own will in all things where that rule prescribes not; and not to be subject to

the inconsistent, uncertain, unknown, arbitrary will of another man,” anything less is

slavery.12 Government is to be established by the governed for the protection of the

natural rights of the governed; Locke’s positions set the stage for the future

Enlightenment philosophers.

Voltaire, Rouseau, and Montesquieu all added to and amended Locke’s work
9
Ibid., 400.
10
Isaac Kramnick, ed., The Portable Enlightenment Reader, ed. Isaac Kramnick (New
York: Penguin Books, 1995), xvi.
11
William Uzgalis, John Locke.
12
John Locke, "The Second Treatise of Civil Government," 397.

6
during the Enlightenment. The majority of their work occurred during the period

immediately before the American Revolution and each made a significant contribution to

man’s understanding of his liberties and the potential role of government in protecting

them, each embodied Kant’s 1784 description of the Enlightenment, as men who had the

courage to use their own reason, they dared to discern.13 The leitmotif of the

Enlightenment in general, and with these three philosophers specifically, was progress by

way of rational critical examination of all aspects of life. The rapidly changing world,

thanks to the scientific revolution and discoveries of the previous century, could no

longer contain itself to the religious dogma or the idle hereditary aristocracy that had

ruled civilization in the past.14 Voltaire in many ways paved the road of criticism for

those who followed.

Francois-Marie d’Arouet, Voltaire, was born in 1694 and became an active

participant in the world of philosophy after spending time with Lord Bolingbroke, who

undoubtedly offered him insight into Locke and Newton. Voltaire’s true introduction to

English philosophy came as he visited England during his exile from France. While in

England, Voltaire experienced the company of Jonathon Swift and other writers, who

were beginning to expand political discourse by utilizing literary forms that offered

criticism on the political climate of the day. From Gulliver’s Travels, to the political

journal the Craftsman, English political criticism took on a new mass media form.15

Voltaire would later recognize the value of this mass appeal when he became a member

13
Immanuel Kant, "What is Enlightenment?," in The Portable Enlightenment Reader, ed.
Isaac Kramnick (New York: Penguin Books, 1995), 1.
14
Peter Gay, The Enlightenment: The Science of Freedom, 3-4; Isaac Kramnick, ed., The
Portable Enlightenment Reader, x-xix.
15
JB Shank, Voltaire, Metaphysics Research Lab, August 31, 2009,
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/voltaire/ (accessed November 21, 2010).

7
of the Academie francaise. The Academie ultimately fell into the hands of the other like-

minded philosophers and by the 1760s the philosophers found themselves with access to

a “new and still rather mysterious power—public opinion.”16

Voltaire’s contribution to the Age of Enlightenment, in France specifically, was

his primary role as a defender of criticism. Throughout his life he was seen as a political

renegade or literary outlaw from his first illicitly published Lettres philosophiques to his

work Elements de la Philosophie de Newton he worked to combine philosophy and social

criticism in order to free France from what he saw as dogma and superstition. Voltaire

led the way for many other philosophers to follow; however, he also developed his own

theories and philosophies concerning natural rights and liberty.17

Voltaire’s philosophy surrounding natural rights and social contract offers a

certain connection as well as a contrast to Locke’s positions. Voltaire argues that man is

born in a state of equality and essentially desires liberty and freedom, or what Locke

labels mans natural rights; however, he also posited that a social contact, or civil

authority, is necessary because the ambitions of man, not necessarily his nature, can lead

him to the crimes of “calumny, rapine, assassination, poisoning” and “the devastation of

one’s neighbors’ lands.”18 Voltaire offers that men are naturally born in complete

equality according to nature that “men, in the enjoyment of their natural faculties, are

equal.”19 He continues by offering a lamentable description of mans need for an

authority, “all men are born with a sufficiently violent liking for domination, wealth, and

pleasure . . . consequently, all men covet the money, the wives, or the daughters of other
16
Peter Gay, The Enlightenment: The Science of Freedom, 81-82.
17
JB Shank, Voltaire.
18
Francois-Marie Arouet de Voltaire, Political Essays, ed. Isaac Kramnick (New York:
Penguin Books , 1995), 416.
19
Ibid., 417.

8
men.”20

Voltaire decidedly shifted his positions on the most appropriate form of civil

authority throughout his life. Peter Gay defines Voltaire as a “political animal” and

relativist. Voltaire supported the monarchy of France, Frederick of Prussia, and

Catherine of Russia. He supported the Parliament of Britain, specifically because of the

role of the House of Commons, yet he criticized the parliament of France as an

“aristocratic coalition” aligned against the French monarchy. Voltaire very deftly

allowed circumstances, and in some cases his self interest, to shape his view of the proper

role of civil authority in the area of the social contract. Perhaps most telling about the

evolution of Voltaire’s political philosophy was his leadership in Genevan politics and

his establishment within his party of the liberal ideas, that “Civil government is the will

of all, carried out by a single person or by several, in accord with the laws that all have

supported.”21

Voltaire adopted the idea of literary political criticism from England and

introduced it to his fellow French philosophers. He added to and amended Locke’s

natural rights ideas by insinuating that while man is born equal and desires freedom and

liberty, it is the ambition of man that often requires a civil authority. Voltaire’s view of

the social contract, while tainted to a certain extent by his evolutionary and self-serving

nature, offers insight into the changing nature of the era. Initial support of a monarchial

government eventually evolved into a very liberal political mindset that “civil

government is the will of all,” which arguably resembles Locke’s under penning social

contract idea that, the power to govern is derived from the consent of the governed.

20
Ibid., 419.
21
Peter Gay, The Enlightenment: The Science of Freedom, 461-465.

9
 Jean Jacques Rousseau examined the various manifestations of the idea of a social

contract. He examined the possibilities for man’s rights and the social contract through

his works Discourse on the Origins of Inequality, Emile, and The Social Contract.

Rousseau used all three works, but especially Discourse and Emile, to develop his

ideology concerning the natural state of man and his natural rights. Rousseau’s theories

revolve around, and are steeped upon man’s innate desire for self-preservation. Based

upon the acknowledgement that biological needs direct the first actions of all men,

Rousseau declared that throughout history as populations increased to a certain point man

began to work in cooperation. Ultimately, this cooperation led to competition for

biological and social satisfaction. Rousseau further posited that the competition that

originated from cooperation is seen in the inequality experienced in modern society.22

From this starting point, that man seeks to satisfy his biological and social needs even

though it may cause conflict with his fellow man through competition, albeit with some

compassion for others, he developed his theory for the goal of a social contract or civil

authority.

The Social Contract, and by extension Rousseau, stand out in the political

philosophy of the Enlightenment for taking the idea of liberalism further than any other

philosopher. He defined the pressing question of what type of civil arrangement

promotes the protection of man as, “the problem is to find a form of association which

will defend and protect with the whole common force the person and goods of each

associate, and in which each, while uniting himself with all, may still obey himself alone

22
Christopher Bertram, Rousseau, Jean Jacques, Metaphysics Research Lab, September
27, 2010, http://plato.stanford.edu/rousseau/ (accessed November 15, 2010). Christopher
Bertram, Rousseau, Jean Jacques, Metaphysics Research Lab, September 27, 2010,
http://plato.stanford.edu/rousseau/ (accessed November 15, 2010).

10
and remain as free as before.”23 From this definition of the problem and from his

established thoughts on the nature of man, Rousseau developed the idea that the optimum

entity that should rule society, or hold ultimate sovereignty, is the “general will” of the

people. He further contended that the “general will” institutes the apparatus of the state

for the purpose of the “common good.” Rousseau, in his own way, agreed with Locke

that man gives up some of his rights in order to join together in a community; however,

Rousseau also argued that man must give up “only such part of his powers, goods, and

liberty as it is important for the community to control; but it must also be granted that the

Sovereign [general will] is sole judge of what is important.”24 The general will of the

community, not an individual, was to determine what rights man must sacrifice for the

common good. Unlike Locke, Montesquieu, or the American founders Rousseau did not

fear the tyranny of the masses, his social contract promoted the idea that if something is

the general will, or the common interests of the people, it can rarely if ever be wrong.

Baron de Montesquieu published his work The Spirit of the Laws approximately

twelve years before Rousseau’s social contract. Montesquieu’s work had a definitive

influence throughout the Enlightenment era, especially on the founding generation of

America. His views on natural law or the natural rights of man did not deviate

significantly for Locke, Voltaire, et al. He believed as they did that justice and other

“immutable principles,” known as natural laws, would always come to dominate bad civil

laws.25 The different types and appropriate mechanisms of government were

Montesquieu’s philosophical priority. Unlike Rousseau, who declared that the “general

23
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract, ed. Isaac Kramnick (New York: Penguin,
1995), 432.
24
Ibid., 438.
25
Peter Gay, The Enlightenment: The Science of Freedom, 457.

11
will” was the only solution to the concept of the social contract, Montesquieu placed his

emphasis on examining different types of government arrangements and identifying their

virtues and vices. He examined the arrangement from a historical, demographical, and

natural perspective and argued that sporadic radical changes to seemingly irrational

governments usually resulted in the loss of liberties.26

Montesquieu’s major contribution comes in the form of his analysis of

governments and his specific observations surrounding the methods of securing political

liberty. He explained liberty as being “a right of doing whatever the laws permit, and if a

citizen could do what they forbid, he would be no longer possessed of liberty, because all

his fellow citizens would have the same power.”27 This position mirrors Locke’s

argument that the purpose of the social contract is to protect our rights from infringement

by others in society. He posited that only moderate forms of governments could secure

the political liberty of its citizenry. In his continued discussion and examination of

governments, Montesquieu offered that political liberty can only exist when there is no

abuse of power and that “to prevent this abuse, it is necessary from the very nature of

things that power should be a check to power.”28 For the purpose of providing a power to

check power he argued that the three powers of any government: legislative, executive

and judicial should not be “united in the same person, or in the same body of magistrates”

that, “there is no liberty if the judiciary power be not separated from the legislative and

26
William Doyle, The Oxford University History of the French Revolution, 2nd Edition
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2002), 50; Hillary Bok, Baron de Montesquieu,
Charles-Louis de Secondat, Metaphysics Lab, January 20, 2010,
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/montesquieu (accessed November 15, 2010).
27
Baron de Montesquieu, The Spirit of the Laws, ed. Isaac Kramnick (New York:
Penguin, 1995), 412.
28
Ibid.

12
executive.”29 Montesquieu argued that the most effective means of, as Locke described,

protecting man’s enjoyment of his natural rights resided in a social contract that provided

moderate government which contained internal checks of power to prevent abuse and

despotism. Montesquieu created the foundational theory for a liberty preserving

government, that men an ocean away adopted and implemented in order to preserve their

natural rights from what they viewed as a tyrannical despot, otherwise known as King

George.

Locke, Voltaire, Rousseau, and Montesquieu provided erudition for their fellow

philosophers and fellow man in the realm of natural rights and social contract. The

founding generation of America adopted the theories posited from these philosophers and

created a mechanism to implement the theories. The Declaration of Independence

signaled the initiation of concrete political progress for man after a century of political

discourse and debate. America became “the program of enlightenment in practice.”30

The American colonists definitively listed their grievances against King George in

the Declaration of Independence and firmly established that America concurred with

Locke’s natural rights by stating that “men are created equal; that they are endowed by

their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty and the

pursuit of happiness,” they further argued that “governments are instituted among men,

deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed” for the purpose of securing

these natural rights.31 America no longer agreed to submit to the irrational whims and

tyranny of the British monarchy or to the British Parliament, within which they were

29
Ibid., 413.
30
Peter Gay, The Enlightenment: The Science of Freedom, 558.
31
Thomas Jefferson, "The Declaration of Independence," in American Scripture: Making
the Declaration of Independence (New York: First Vintage Books, 1998), 236.

13
allowed no representation. The governed in the American colonies withdrew their

consent to be governed by anyone other than their own duly elected and appointed

representatives. This Declaration became a warning for despotism throughout the world,

as Thomas Paine described it “the cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all

mankind.”32 Diderot expressed his delight and admiration observing the revolutionaries

as, “these brave Americans, who would . . . rather shed their blood and die than lose the

slightest portion of their freedom.”33 Many did shed their blood and ultimately America’s

revolutionaries transitioned from rebels into political philosophers and statesmen. The

Declaration of Independence enumerated man’s natural rights and the revolution secured

the rights from usurpation by King George. The founders needed to create a

constitutional government that established a social contract that maintained those rights.

The Constitution of the United States, and the subsequent Bill of Rights,

established three separate yet equal branches of government, providing power to check

power, and a list of citizen’s rights upon which the federal government nor anyone else is

allowed to intrude or infringe. The structure adopted by the new government imitated the

advice of the Enlightenment, as Hamilton states in Federalist Nine, “the science of

politics, however, like most other sciences has received great improvement. The efficacy

of various principles is now well understood, which were either not known at all or

imperfectly known to the ancients.”34 Throughout the Federalist Papers the authors rely

upon sources from antiquity such as Greece and Rome, as well as, the earlier

philosophers such as Locke and Montesquieu. Madison, Hamilton and Jay provided

32
Thomas Paine, "Common Sense," in 46 Pages Thomas Paine, Common Sense, and the
Turning Point to Independence (Philadelphia, PA: Running Press, 2003), 152.
33
Peter Gay, The Enlightenment: The Science of Freedom, 557.
34
Alexander Hamilton, Federalist Nine, ed. Garry Wills (New York: Bantam, 2003), 45.

14
readers a rational detailed explanation for the new Constitution and the benefits of its

design, while maintaining that their purpose was “to advocate a government that will

guard the passions of individuals for the sake of order and guard the guardians for the

sake of freedom.”35 The creation of a new nation sized, soon to be continental sized,

representative republic whose sole purpose for existing was to secure the blessings of

liberty for its inhabitants was certainly one of the capstones of the Age of Enlightenment.

Many men of the eighteenth century looked upon the experiment of America as the,

imperfect, culmination of the ideals and ideology of the Enlightenment in action. The

foundational documents of America converted the natural rights and social contract

ideology from the minds of men like Locke, Voltaire, Rousseau, and Montesquieu into

practical codified guidelines for a working society whose purpose was to preserve the

enjoyment of natural rights.

The French revolution made its contribution to the standard of mans natural rights

as the Estates General met at Versailles they adopted the Declaration of the Rights of

Man and the Citizen on August 27, 1789. The work specifically offered that because the

“ignorance, forgetfulness, or contempt of the rights of man are the sole causes of public

misfortune and the corruption of governments” the national assembly decided to establish

the rights of man.36 The French declaration offered that man is born free and that “liberty

consists of the power to do whatever is not injurious to others; thus the enjoyment of the

natural rights of every man has for its limits only those that assure other members of

society the enjoyment of those same rights; such limits may be determined only by

35
Peter Gay, The Enlightenment: The Science of Freedom, 565-567.
36
French National Assembly, "The Declaration of the Rights of Man and The Citizen," in
The Portable Enlightenment Reader, ed. Isaac Kramnick (New York: Penguin
Publishing, 1995), 466-467.

15
law.”37 The French revolution occurred after the American and was in many ways

significantly different from the isolated war in North America; however, both the

Declaration of Independence and the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen

were both heavily influenced by Locke’s century old polemic.

Man struggled since his earliest days to create the perfect form of community, a

societal organization that provided protection of his life, liberty, and property. From the

earliest Greek polis to the Roman Republic man never achieved the proper combination

of government and liberty until the men of the Enlightenment emerged from the shadow

of the scientific revolution to apply rational criticism to man, his interactions in society

and the interactions of man’s government. These new political scientists and

philosophers, beginning with Locke and continuing through Madison, Hamilton and Jay,

crystallized in their minds the importance of man’s natural state and his inherent desire to

be free. They also recognized that the only way for man to enjoy his natural rights were

in a state of being where the “community comes to be the umpire” where we agree to

give up some of our rights through a social contract in order to protect the majority of our

rights.38 The apogee of this political search occurred during the later half of the

eighteenth century when the American Declaration of Independence and the French

Declaration of the Rights of Man and The Citizen established for perpetuity the standard

for man’s natural rights by enumerating them for the world to witness. The rights listed

within the American Declaration received codified protection through the ratification and

the implementation of the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The

philosophy that sprang from the great minds of the Age of Enlightenment became a

37
Ibid., 467.
38
John Locke, "The Second Treatise of Civil Government," 400.

16
dramatic world changing reality in the foundational documents of the United States of

America and The French Republic.

17
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19